PARIS: The Eiffel Tower's 20,000 sparkling bulbs went dark for five minutes on Thursday night and the lights went out at the Colosseum in Rome and the Greek parliament in Athens in a demonstration of concern about climate change across the European continent.
Environmental activists timed the lights-out protest before the release Friday of a major climate change report that will warn of a worsening threat from global warming.
The City of Light dimmed between 7.55 pm and 8 pm, when lights were switched off at the Eiffel Tower as well as the Paris' Hilton, where many of the scientists and officials from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are staying as they work on the climate change report. The hotel even switched off its electric revolving front door.
Individuals also heeded the lights-out call by France's Alliance for the Planet which organised the demonstration. "I think it's an important gesture," said Chantal Bericault, who said she turned off all electrical appliances in her apartment in the chic 8th district of the French capital.
Bericault, a jewellry store owner, said she had even braved her building's stairs in the dark. Some experts frowned on the lights-out, saying it could consume more energy than it conserves because of a power spike when people turn the lights back on.